Failed to lock the file! VMWare virtual disk (vmdk)

I copied one of my Windows XP virtual machine running on a VMWare Server 1.02 host locally to my workstation. After the files were copied I opened the vmx file with VMWare Workstation 6 and received the error below after trying to start the virtual machine. I made one snapshot on the VMWare Server host.

Cannot open the disk ‘C:\VM-machines\Windows XP-001\Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk’ or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: Failed to lock the file.

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Locate the virtual machine in Windows Explorer and delete any .lck folders

Start the virtual machine. If this fails try to Map the virtual hard disk to Z:\

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I than disconnect the virtual hard disk and retried. The virtual machine boot without any problem; my snapshot was valid.

failed, file, lock, vmdk, VMWare, workstation

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This entry was posted by Ivan Versluis on March 12, 2008 at 5:20 pm, and is filed under VMWare. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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Comments (75)

#1 written by BT
about 1 year ago

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Thanks! Worked for me.

–BT
#2 written by tex
about 1 year ago

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I virtualized a fisical machine but when i tried to open on workstation i got the same error: failed to lock the file. So i removed the 2 folders .lck but when starting again the machine i get this error: Cannot connect virtual device ide1:1. No corresponding device is available on the host.
It tries to open but as soon as windows screen appears i get a blu screen! i tried to map the drive to z as you suggested but i get the same error.
Can you helpme please. thanks
#3 written by Ragu
about 1 year ago

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Thank you for your post, it worked great! thanks for sharing the knowledge!
#4 written by kotwun10
about 1 year ago

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Works! Great Tip
#5 written by Ngo viet yen
about 1 year ago

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Wow i did it. Great thanks.
#6 written by Simon
about 1 year ago

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Worked for me as well!
thanx
#7 written by anonymous
about 1 year ago

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Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
#8 written by John
about 1 year ago

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Yep ty, worked 4 me.
#9 written by boby2k
about 1 year ago

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tks a lot
#10 written by nye
about 1 year ago

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Very very thanks!
#11 written by Captain Solo
about 1 year ago

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I had a similar problem after a power outage. In /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/ there are 2 folders which end in .lck. Deleting both of these solved my problem
#12 written by Me
about 1 year ago

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Thanks worked for me as well and I was running Ubuntu on VM not windows!
#13 written by Tarcio
about 1 year ago

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Worked. Thanks.
#14 written by Dopu
about 1 year ago

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Worked. Thanks.
#15 written by belson
about 1 year ago

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Thanks… it worked
#16 written by P4W3R
about 1 year ago

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You are the best
#17 written by carlo
about 1 year ago

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Grasia fiera, me rre sirbio
#18 written by Gilbert M Hale
about 1 year ago

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Renaming the .lck files (safer than deleting until I verified it would work ) worked perfectly for me. I am running VMware Server 2 under an Ubuntu Server v-8.04 64 bit platform, Dell Precision T3400 8Gb RAM machine.

I had been running several VMware Workstation machines under XP Pro with VMware Workstation v-6.5 with a Dell Vostro 220 4Gb RAM machine, and wanted to migrate the virtual machines to the VMWare Server 2 for better load balancing, and on a higher RAM machine for greater concurrent virtual machine density. Imagine my surprise when the first imported machine worked great. The others did not, until I renamed the .lck files. Your post saved me hours of setting up new virtual machines.

Thank You!

Gil
#19 written by ruch
about 1 year ago

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Wow, thanks a lot, u saved so much of my time
#20 written by leezo
about 1 year ago

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Thanks a million that worked
#21 written by ugo montorsi
about 1 year ago

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ho lo stesso problema ho fatto le seguenti prove:
ho la vmware server con windows 2003 server su server linux red hat 5 enterprise edition
1: cliccando su start mi dà l’errore:
Unable to Power On virtual machine with “A General System error occurred: Internal error”
2: ps -eaf|grep vmware
root 26375 19955
Message from hyperion.sin.it: Cannot open the disk ‘/u03/VMachine/W2k3PLA/W2k3PLA.vmdk’ or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: Failed to lock the file.
qual’è il pid è 26375 o 19955
3: devo fare kill 26375 o kill 19955
e riavviare la virtual machine?
aspetto una mail di risposta.
grazie cordiali saluti
dott. ugo montorsi
#22 written by Brian
about 1 year ago

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Thanks a million… worked for me and saved my VM!
#23 written by Pallav
about 1 year ago

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Cheers, Works Like A Beauty
#24 written by mj
about 1 year ago

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thanks
#25 written by roly
about 1 year ago

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gracias fiera me sirvio mucho ya lo daba por muerto mi maquina virtual
#26 written by pk
about 1 year ago

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Thanks dude. It worked………
#27 written by Jeff
about 1 year ago

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Awesome. You are my hero.
#28 written by Babu
about 1 year ago

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Excellent!!!!! It works for us, thankyou very much!
#29 written by Prasanjit
about 1 year ago

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Thanks it worked great for me
#30 written by Jokohanho
about 1 year ago

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Thanks. It worked for me aswell!
#31 written by Rich
about 1 year ago

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Great, worked perfectly! Cheers!
#32 written by Biliballa
about 1 year ago

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Nice! It worked!
#33 written by Niels Brinch
about 1 year ago

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Just wanted to add my name to the long list of people who solved their problem from this tip. Thanks.
#34 written by dom
about 1 year ago

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thanks… worked for me too. good job.
#35 written by Mehr
about 1 year ago

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Thanks a bunch!!….You saved so much of my time!
#36 written by philip
about 1 year ago

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Thanks!!
#37 written by Prashant
about 12 months ago

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thanks a lot … it really saved a lot of time .it was great help .
#38 written by totad
about 11 months ago

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thanks it worked
#39 written by Klaus
about 10 months ago

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Thanks, great information, solved my issue
#40 written by Rherrera
about 10 months ago

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muy bien, muchas gracias. Thanks.
#41 written by beny
about 10 months ago

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dzieki wszytko dział!
thx everty thing work
#42 written by Paul
about 10 months ago

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I’d just like to add my thanks too! I had my heart in my mouth when I thought I’d possible lost yesterdays development work but everything is running again. Thanks!
#43 written by Ahasan Kabir
about 10 months ago

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Thanks a lot. It is grate solution.
When i upgrade from VMServer 1.8 to VMWare Server 2.0, I can’t open my os. I am confuse what i can do, after that i try to find the solution. From this site i get solution. Just i delete the two lock the from vm directory as per recommendation. Thanks a lot.
#44 written by Rigo
about 10 months ago

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Excelente!!!
#45 written by Oberon
about 9 months ago

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I ran into the same problem when I moved from VMWare server to VMWare Workstation. Your solution worked for me too. Thanks for sharing!
#46 written by Ced
about 8 months ago

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The error occurs most of the times because VMware finds a lock directory in the same directory as the VHD.
The simple solution is to remove this directory (you’ll recognize it by the extension ‘.lck’)
The error is most likely caused by a wrong shutdown of VMware (either it crashed, or your PC crashed, or you just broke it. whatever applies )

Happy virtualizing~
#47 written by Bryan
about 8 months ago

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Exactly what I needed. Thanks a ton
#48 written by Roderick
about 8 months ago

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Excellent! That is all i need to know! Worked great.
#49 written by Zembold
about 8 months ago

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Thanks!
#50 written by johnkmx
about 8 months ago

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Perfect. Thanks for sharing.

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